On Monday, the Registrar General of the Calcutta High Court, Chaitali Chattopadhyay, issued a notification stated that "All police stations in the state should exercise caution regarding immediate and unnecessary arrests of accused individuals under IPC Section 498 (A) related to domestic violence against women."

This notification, issued by the Registrar General, was uploaded on the website of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday. In its notification it was mentioned that the order of the Supreme Court has been mentioned in this regard, in which the police officers concerned have been warned of punishment for violating norms in such a case.

According to the notification, police officers investigating a case under Section 498 (A) of the IPC should thoroughly examine the eligibility of filing a complaint under this section in a specific case initially. If the investigating officer finds merit in the complaint, they must prepare a checklist of criteria under which the accused can be taken into custody.

The investigating officer will then have to make a presentation to the concerned Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), who will finally decide whether to take the accused into custody or not. If the investigating officer concerned does not find much truth in the complaint filed under this section, he shall inform the concerned Superintendent of Police (SP) within two days of the complaint with a report as to why no arrest has been made in the particular case. should be done.

The directions from the Calcutta High Court also stipulate that preliminary inquiries with the accused must be completed within a certain timeframe.

Welcoming this step, senior Advocate Kaushik Gupta of the High Court stated that ''this order is timely because there have been instances of misuse of Section 498 (A) by complainants. As soon as a complaint is filed, there is a provision for immediate arrest under this section. In any civilized society, punishment should not be given before the case is properly examined. Therefore, this is a timely move by the Calcutta High Court''